by Hope Hammond

Created on: June 17, 2009

You keep hearing buzzwords thrown about like web 2.0 right? Just what exactly is everyone referring to though? First, it is not really a second Internet. All the sites are still there, and you've probably even seen all the changes and didn't even know they were the "web 2.0". This whole thing really started when everyone switched to slow dial-up modem connections and moved over to broadband. Now they suddenly had access to all of this great bandwidth to use but were stuck sending simple text files and pictures across the Internet. This was web 1.0, and web 2.0 was the solution.So the short answer is everything from flash player, JavaScript, games, movies, web applications and the like are all web 2.0.

But what are the various points of these technologies and what were the reasons to take such measures to start using them. First the uses of this technology. Javascript and flash player are the two largest representatives of Web 2.0 as well as being some of the oldest technologies implemented. JavaScript actually shipped with some of the earliest Netscape web browsers and served the primary function of eliminating some of the weaknesses seen in HTML. It was used for everything from scripting animations to formating and appearance. However, JavaScript is a real programming language all its own and is seeing increased use on all aspects of the web from programing games to even server side implementations. (more on that later.)

The other main technology flash, was primarily designed for animations, such as games that you could play on the inherent. This is where most of its popularity came from, though nowadays it is almost always associated with playing videos thanks to the success of Youtube and the like. It too is a programming language but unlike JavaScript it resides in the flash player instead of the browser. Usually flash player runs as a plug-in, or part of the browser, but you can use it in the desktop environment if you download it from Adobe's website.

Of course these are just the more noticeable aspects of Web 2.0, increasingly most of the real changes are occurring server side. This means on the computers that host the websites that you connect to. Ever hear of Google docs? Or World of Warcraft? Or any of the other thousands of programs being released on the web? This is the other side of Web 2.0 where companies are developing for the web browser instead of you computer, and the newest hype is cloud computing to host all of these new developments. In theory everything can be switched over to being done on the web but the technologies are still new and we don't know if everything will play out that way yet. Several major companies like Google and Microsoft seem to be betting on it.

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